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10 April 2012

And in other Muskrat Falls news… #nlpoli

Oh, so now it's electricity for mining ventures that need the power. So here's a question for the good minister: Muskrat Falls is supposedly going to increase rates to island customers to some 16.4 cents a kilowatt hour. What rate does Kennedy expect that the mining companies will pay? That certainly doesn't sound like a price high-use mining companies would appreciate - so will ordinary power consumers on the island be subsidizing corporate customers?

But now, a political storm may be gathering on the eastern horizon over a popular campaign promise by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to give a $4 billion loan guarantee to Newfoundland’s Lower Churchill hydroelectric development.

…

If you follow Twitter comments, you’ll see that Tonda MacCharles’ piece in the Star caused a few people of the Tory persuasion some degree of angst. They bitched about its inaccuracy.

Thing is, the story is fair and accurate.

The problem is that the Conservatives have been consistently frigging up their pitch for the deal.

Coming up...

August 3

This is your political life: Ross Wiseman

Finance minister Ross Wiseman is the latest provincial Conservative to announce that he won't be running in the November general election. On Monday, SRBP will take a look back at three moments in Wiseman's political career that define the man and his political legacy.

Date TBA

Lions or Jellyfish: a review

Ray Blake's new book is in the stores or available from University of Toronto Press online. Blake examines the relationship between the provincial government in St. John's and the federal government through eight episodes from Term 29, through resettlement, to hydroelectricity, to the offshore, Meech Lake, and Equalization.

Date TBA

Changing the direction. Changing the tone.

The party that forms government after the November general election will face significant challenges from its first minutes in office. One of them will be changing the relationship between the provincial government and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. In an upcoming series of posts, SRBP will look at the challenge of managing the government's relationships with the public.